The legal professions: a comparison between China and UK

A.The concept of lawyers B.The structure of law firm C.The lawyer association D.Qualifications and training E.Policy for Foreign Lawyer

A.The concept of Lawyers

According to the “ Law on Lawyers of the People ’ s Republic of China ”, A lawyer shall refer to a practitioner who has acquired a lawyer ’ s practicing certificate and accepts authorization or appointment to provide legal services for a client.

There are around 120,000 lawyers and 11,800 law firms in China,; There are around 7,000 lawyers and 600 law firms in Shanghai.

On average,there are 0.8 lawyers per ten thousand population in China.

The British legal profession includes two separate branches:barristers and solicitors.

In Britain there are around 92,000 solicitors. There are around 9,000 barristers in independent practice,known collectively as the Bar.

On average, there are 16 lawyers per ten thousand population in the British.

B. The structure of the law firm

By the end of 2007, there were three types of law firm in China: state-funded law firms, co-operative law firms, partnership law firms but not individual law firms.

The Law on Lawyers was amended and adopted by the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People ’ s Congress of PRC on October 28, 2007, and the new Law on Lawyers shall be effective as of June 1, 2008.

According to this new law regulating lawyers, a lawyer, who is with practicing experience for five or more years, can form a individual law firm, but this lawyer shall be unlimitedly liable for the debts of the law firm.

Most Chinese law firms are on a small scale, consisting of between 10 to 30 lawyers, only a few have more than 100 to 300 lawyers.

In Britain, Solicitors can form partnerships with other solicitors. Alternatively,since 2001, they can form a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP).

Under an ordinary partnership a solicitor can be personally liable (even after retirement) for a claim of negligence against the solicitor firm, even if he or she was not personally involved in the transaction giving rise to the claim. Under the Limited Liability Partnership a partner ’ s liability is limited to negligence for which he or she was personally responsible.

In contrast, barristers must be self- employed and, under Bar rules, cannot form partnerships, although they usually share offices, called chambers, with other barristers.

All the barristers in a particular chambers share a clerk, who is a type of business manager, arranging meeting with the client and the solicitor and also negotiating the barrister ’ s fee. Around 70 percent of practisting barristers are based in London chambers, though they may travel to courts in the provinces. The rest are based in the other big cities.

C. Lawyer Association The All-China National Lawyers Association (ACNLA) was established in July Many local lawyers associations have also been set up at provincial level and in municipalities with districts.

Chinese lawyers must be members of the local lawyers association of their place of residence; simultaneously they also become members of the ACNLA.

A lawyers ’ association is a social organization as legal person and is responsible for the self-disciplinary organization of lawyers.

In Britain, the solicitors ’ governing body is the Law Society, which supervises training and discipline,as well as acting on behalf of the profession as a whole.

The barristers governing body is the Bar Council, which, like the Law Society, acts as a kind of trade union, safeguarding the interests of barristers, and also as a watchdog, regulating barristers ’ training and activities.

D.Qualifications and training

In China, there are two routes to become a lawyer:

One route is when a person wants to apply to practice law, he or she shall satisfy the following conditions:

1.Graduate from university ;

2.Passing the uniform national judicial examination for which only people who have bachelor and above degree are allowed to take.

Usually,this examination is so difficult for people who take part in the exam that only about 7 percent people can pass it each year.

3. Completing one-year internship at a law firm;

The second route is where a person, who has received regular course education or above in an institution of higher learning, has been engaged in the professional work for at least 15 years in a field short of legal service staff and has a senior professional title or an equivalent professional title, applies for practicing law on a full-time basis, an approval of practice of law may be granted if he passes the assessment of the justice administrative authority under the State Council.

How to become a solicitor

In Britain, all aspects of qualifying as a solicitor are governed by a set of rules called the Training Regulations Under the regulations, an applicant can become a solicitor in several different ways.

First, although no minimum degree classification is laid down, increased competition for entry to the profession means that most successful applicants now have an upper second class degree, and very few get in with less than a lower second.

However, everyone who aims to qualify as a solicitor must complete two distinct stages of training: Academic training and vocational training.

Academic training provides students with a basic knowledge of the law; vocational training builds upon that knowledge.

In the academic stage of training, everyone studies the foundations of legal knowledge.

There are three main routes by which to complete academic training:

Qualifying with a law degree – the law- graduate route, which entails completing a qualifying law degree;

Qualifying with a non-law degree – the non-law graduate route, in which a student graduates from a non-law degree course, then, completes a Common Professional Examination (CPE) course for one year, a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) course, or a senior-status degree in law ;

Qualifying without a degree – It is possible for the non-graduate mature students to enter the profession without a degree.They take a broad two- year,CPE course.It is also possible for Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) route to become solicitors without first taking a degree course;

After successfully completing a law degree – or (in the case of non-law graduates) the CPE course or GDL course – the applicants must take a one year Legal Practice Course (LPC);

The LPC provides professional instruction for prospective solicitors. It may be completed on a full-time or part-time basis.

After finishing the LPC, the applicant will enter into the training contract(TC) to serve a two-year apprenticeship, with a firm of solicitors authorised as a training establishment.

How to Become a Barrister

The starting point is an upper second class degree.

If this degree is not in law, applicants must do the one-year course leading to the Common Professional Examintion(CPE).

Mature students may be accepted without a degree, but applications are subject to very stringent consideration,and this is not a likely route to the Bar.

All students then have to join one of the four Inns of Court: Inner Temple; Middle Temple; Gray ’ s Inn; and Lincoln ’ s Inn all of which are in London.

Students take the year-long Bar Vocational Course. Until 1996, this was only available at the Inns of Court School of Law in London, but can now be taken at eight different institutions around the country.

Students have to dine at their Inn 12 times.This rather old-fashioned and much criticised custom stems from the idea that students will benefit from the wisdom and experience of their elders if they sit among them at mealtimes.

After this, the applicant is called to the Bar, and must then find a place in a chambers to serve his or her pupillage.This is a one-year apprenticeship in which pupils assist a qualified barrister, who is known as their pupil master.

Pupillage completed, the newly qualified barrister must find a permanent place in a chambers, known as a tenacy.This can be the most difficult part, and some are forced to ‘ squat ’ -remaining in their pupillage chambers for as long as they are allowed, without becoming a full member-untill they find a permanent place. There are only around 300 tenancies available each year-one to every three pupils.

The consequence of the difficulty of finding a place in chambers means that, although there are many barristers earning very large fees, the average income of barristers is less than that of solicitors. Even having got a place in chambers, there is no guarantee that the barrister ’ s clerk will be able to find many cases – known as briefs – for the barrister.

E.Policy for Foreign Lawyer According to the “ Regulations on the Administration of Foreign Law Firms ’ Representative Offices in China(2002) ”, after obtaining the permission of the judicial administration department under the State Council of China, a foreign law firm may establish a representative office in or send representatives to China.

Today, around 200 foreign law firm have representative office in China.

A representative office and its representatives may only be engaged in some activities that do not involve the affairs on Chinese law

In the UK, foreign lawyers are welcome to practice, can be hired by or form partnerships with local lawyers. Additonally, they are allowed to interpret both UK law and international law, but they cannot refer to themselves as solicitors or barristers.